This invention relates to the compaction of trash by a compaction blade in a refuse truck. It more particularly relates to the use of a multi-stage packing cylinder in extending the compaction blade.
Refuse or garbage collection trucks are widely used to collect trash, garbage and so forth and transport it to a disposal site. These refuse trucks are commonly driven down the streets of this country. The refuse is deposited inside a can, bin or container of a truck. In order to carry more refuse per trip, compaction blades are provided to compact the refuse in the bin. The blade is normally in an at rest or retracted position as the trash is dumped into the bin. Normally, a hydraulic multi-stage packing cylinder unit (having a plurality of concentric telescoping cylinders) is used to shove the compaction blade until it compresses the refuse in the bin. The cylinder is normally a multi-stage cylinder, e.g., four or five stages. It may be provided with two extend ports, one is an ES port which is used to provide fluid to the smallest or the two smaller cylinders and the other port is an E port which is used to provide power fluid to the remaining cylinder of the packing cylinder unit which are the larger cylinders. The packing cylinder unit is also provided with a retract port which is connected to a return conduit to carry the fluid on the non-power side of the concentric cylinders back to a storage tank. Hydraulic fluid is provided from a pump and is diverted manually to the extend ports when it is desired to compact the trash. When it is desired to retract the compaction blade, the power fluid is directed to the retract port or R of the packing cylinder unit and causes the concentric cylinders to go in the opposite direction retracting the compaction blade.
This works quite well, however, it does have certain disadvantages. For example, the time required for extending the stages of the cylinders is rather long.
Because of this problem I have concluded that there is a need for improving the speed of the extension of the compaction blade. It is an object of this invention to provide such a system.